Hike Up To Piazzale Michelangelo and Some previous experiences

Italian 10:00-12:00
Architecture w/ Professore Mauro Mussolini 1:00-4:00

We arrived at class around 9:45 and walked up to class room "Roma". There we found a sign on the wall saying: "Union College, Francesca's Class is Cancelled Today" Yay! We didn't have conversation, but had to be back at 11:00 for our hour grammar lesson with Veronica. Most of our class stayed in the classroom and did their homework, but Anna and I left in search for a caffe with ciocolata calda. We walked down one of the side streets of Piazza Santo Spirito and stumbled upon Cafe Bianchi, just around the corner from the Pitti Palace. Here we ordered hot chocolates for ourselves and stood in awe as the Barista held our cups under the hot chocolate spigot and watched pure steaming chocolate trudge out. MOLTO BUONO. It was the best hot chocolate we had ever had, and it was more of a dessert than a morning drink, but definitely worth the 2.50 euro.

After we finished we headed back to the piazza where we both bought large carrots to munch on because we felt we had been lacking vegetables all week. We took my 2 for 30cents and Anna's 5 for 80 cents carrots over to the steps of Santo Spirito and found a patch in the sun and chewed on carrots while waiting for 11:00 to approach.



After grammar class we met up with Sam and Sarah and went across the bridge to find a hole in the wall panini shop we had seen a day earlier. There we all got sandwiches that sounded SO good and were a good price 3.50 euro, but as we bit into them we were utterly disappointed. My sandwich had Prosciuto, carciofi, provolone and a "tuscan pate", sounded delcious, but the pate just wasn't for me. I ate the sandwich anyways and headed to meet the class outside the baptistry a little disappointed.

Mauro Mussolini was very animated. We had long lectures, took MANY notes, got almost hit by 2 ambulances, multiple taxi cabs and mobbed by other groups of people. I actually ended up learning a decent amount about the Piazza and the ospedale and how everything used to be run while we were standing on hard cobblestone for 2 hours. We got to go inside the baptistry, the best preserved building in all of Firenze and then we climbed the campanile. I only mildly had a heart attack trying to climb to the top in my sparkly ballet flats... woops picked the WRONG shoes for that excursion (but in my defense we all thought we were just going into the baptistry). As usual the view from one of the highest points in the city was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! It was so cool to look at and identify all the places we had been to in the previous week, and to see the other tourists standing atop the Duomo looking out at the city like we were doing from the Campanile. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Architecture HW: Go to Chiesa San Miniato al Monte... Crap he is making us go to ANOTHER church... oh wait TOTALLY worth it :o)


Wednesday we had only an hour of class and leisurely spent our afternoon. We walked to the Oil Shoppe, where there are mainly americans eating, but honestly, they have the BEST sandwiches I have ever had! I chose the "healthy #7" with Prosciuto Crudo, Carciofi, Funghi, Formaggio e Rucola.. they were out of Prosciuto so I substituted for turkey, and it was still BOMB. Melt in your meth panino on a wheat bread, heated to perfect, enjoyed on a curb of a piazza in the sun... what could be better? All of that without having to use the bathroom!

I snuck into a restaurant we had eaten in the day before, used the bathroom there, and I swear as I attempted to walk out nonchalantly the owner of the store mumble "brutta, brutta" under her breath. But whatever, I gave her business twice already and she denied us Aqua al rubinetto, so she can deal with me using her bagno!

After lunch we walked toward the Duomo, Anna and Sam wanted to buy some books to read. While they were in the bookstore buying way overpriced books, I wandered down the road popping in and out of clothing stores. We then headed back over the Arno toward Piazzale Michelangelo. From the river we saw the point at which we needed to hike high above on the mountain, contemplated bus number 12, but then decided a good calorie burn was necessary. We got in a mode, found the stairs and began to hike (and sweat, for me anyways).

Martedi: 6, Aprile 2010.

Gorgeous views of Firenze all the way up. We took periodic breaks reaching the top because none of us were dressed appropriately for the hike. Little did we know it would be that hot and that we would be climbing hundreds of stairs, but we sucked it up and reached the top where we found Alex H, Katie, Johanna and Alison on their way down. The views were just gorgeous, we could see the entire city and beyond to snow capped mountains far far away, to the rolling hills of tuscany and to a portion of an old wall and tower which once encircled all of Firenze. So beautiful, wish everyone could see it in person because photos just don't do it justice.



At the top we went into Chiesa sel San Miniato al Monte, gorgeous interior and exterior and once again gorgeous view. Nice to be inside the cool church after the long hike uphill in the sun. After we looked around for a while we headed back down. Stopped for gelato, I got a 2 euro cono con stratciatella e menta, the menta was SO refreshing it was perfect and the chocolate chunks in the stratchiatella were SO good as well. We walked to Piazzale Michelangelo and enjoyed our gelato and the view then waited at the bus stop to take a excessively long bus ride back to SMN where I almost fell asleep numerous times. We made it home by 5, I went on a run got changed and showered then had dinner.

Cena: Delcious tortellini with spinach and marscapone. Fried and salted potatoes, spinach, spinach and ricotta quiche, and FAGIOLI (BEANS). For dessert a broken l'uovo ciocolata di pasqua, sam and I ate a DECENT amount of the dark chocolate egg while Claudia and Gabbri let us watch Scrubs in Italiano with them. GREAT DAY!